 | Tracklist:
1. Native Bell
2. Hey Light
3. Infant Dressing Table
4. Panic
5. Two Sails On A Sound
6. Slippi
7. Too Soon
Release Date: 2003 | |
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On 13 Lists
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Sung Tongs, Feels, Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavilion can all be found in Here Comes the Indian. To call this the definitive Animal Collective album would be too easy, but isn’t it? You reader might not agree, brandishing your copy of Feels at the screen, but I dissent: the forlorn piano of “Daffy Duck” is burrowed into “Two Sails on a Sound,” ruffling under the tonal melodies overlapping the crackle of noise and Avey Tare’s manipulated vocals. Sung Tongs’ trance-folk centerpiece “Visiting Friends” is the aging form of “Infant Dressing Table,” its playful melancholy weighed by low blasts of droning bass. “Slippi” is the scorching psych-rock that foreshadows the escapist qualities of “Who Could Win a Rabbit” and “Lion in a Coma.” The wails puncturing the unintelligible choruses on “Native Bell” and “Hey Light” characterize the similarly abrasive Strawberry Jam.
I say this not to overstate Animal Collective’s reliance on themes or tropes but to show that Here Comes the Indian is masked by an “animalistic” nature (an important and oft praised aspect to their music) that can negate the fact that Animal Collective have, here, on this album, perfected their craft and shaped the works to follow. The album is notable for being the first time all four members appear together, but the expected buoyancy is replaced by the fraying edges of psychedelic freak-folk brandished with traces of noise rock and left-field trance gaps. Following a bout of touring that left relationships strained, Here Comes the Indian proposed a catharsis for the band members, who took the chance to “rock out.”
A week later, the album was recorded and mixed, and the rushed, uncensored obliteration on display houses songs that are intricate, surprising and poignant, an extension of their wild live personas and their more critical studio characters. And while there’s more than enough room to discuss all the treasures to a masterpiece as complete as this one having been born from the frustration and passion of simply making music, the real reason this is my favorite Animal Collective album is that, once past the off-putting abrasion of a style and production that, yes, sounds like it was captured in the middle of a forest, there are these songs, man, and they are brilliant.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Enough.
Digging: Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
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finally
Digging: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
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i read this b4 all you fags
Digging: Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise
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but i thought feels was your favorite? reconsidered? haha this is nowhere near my favorite but im predictable
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Reviews like this make you my favorite sputnik reviewer.
Digging: The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
| | | Album Rating: 5
Last one you guys I promise. Until the next album.
Digging: Menomena - Mines | | |
do one for feels then you can have one for all your ac 5's
| | | Album Rating: 5
I will consider it.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Review was needed, but I don't see at all how it could be considered the definitive AC album. It just happens to be one of their better, noisier albums.
Digging: Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty | | | Album Rating: 5
It has some of their sweetest melodies, Panda Bear rocks the drums like he hasn't since, the overall pacing of the album is fairly incredible considering the stuff they throw out, it is unabashed about the "no-bullshit communion" they find in their animalistic qualities (quote from Deakin). It has everything I'd want in an Animal Collective album while actually playing into the nature-oriented stereotype we even apply to works like technology-oriented/family-living-obsessed MPP.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Fair enough.
What happened to Deakin?
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
This isn't even the same band that brought us MPP, or Feels. I think my biggest problem with this album is that the songs seem to go nowhere and drag on. As far as their noise/folk albums go I much prefer Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished
Digging: Renaissance - Novella | | |
i mean this is good and everything but
| | | Album Rating: 3
Maybe I need to listen to this more, I feel its the weakest AC release...
Fucking killer review though.
Digging: One Last Wish - 1986 | | | Album Rating: 3.5
Lewis, you're definitely the best staff reviewer for sputnikmusic, but disagree entirely.
| | | Album Rating: 5
Spirit is great and I like it when people argue in its favor, but for me personally it is too obviously a period of progression. That album definitely has moments that start to sag whereas I find this particularly tight knit, even more so than MPP or Sung Tongs.
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i feel like they started well (most of all in terms of songwriting; 'chocolate girl' is prog-pop that feels VERY mature in terms of songwriting) with spirit, then kinda regressed and then this is where they started to come back. not to diss on campfire songs because i love it though
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Well I've been thinking about getting back into AC so I'll probably get this.
Great review as always
Digging: Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream And Other Delights
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
one of my favorites, a much needed review lewis
Digging: Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP | | | Album Rating: 3.5
If anything Spirit suffers due to its length, but otherwise houses some of the collectives best songs. I've only heard this twice but it sounded more like a 3/5 for me.
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